Damaged Chernobyl nuclear site needs urgent funding, warns European development bank

BRUSSELS — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says it faces a €500 million shortfall for emergency repairs to the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine.

It warned that international funding is needed to avert a potential environmental disaster after damage from Russian attacks.

The EBRD is seeking the money to restore the giant steel structure built over the remains of Reactor 4, which exploded in 1986. Damaged by a Russian drone strike in February 2025, the structure — known as the New Safe Confinement — protects the reactor's remains and allows radioactive material to be managed safely.

“It's not a Ukrainian problem,” EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso told POLITICO in an interview. “Everybody should feel concerned about nuclear safety globally.”

The EBRD is joint-owned by the European Union, the European Investment Bank and 77 other countries, including the U.S., China and Russia. It was originally set up to fund development in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and is a major funder of nuclear safety.

While there is no immediate danger from Chernobyl, Renaud-Basso said the damage needs to be fixed before 2030. Without repairs, moisture could cause corrosion to the infrastructure beneath the protective arch, eventually making it much more difficult and expensive to manage the radioactive material.

She argued the repairs should not be seen as competing with other urgent demands for support to Ukraine, which is already struggling to repair energy infrastructure damaged by Russia's invasion. Instead, governments should see it as an investment in international nuclear safety, with consequences extending beyond Ukraine's borders.

“It's very much also a question of trust,” she said. “When you see so many countries investing also in nuclear, you need to have the trust that when things happen, if things happen, there is a capacity to deal with them.”

The argument comes as a growing number of European countries consider nuclear energy as part of their future energy mix. Renaud-Basso said the need to maintain strong safety standards and demonstrate that the international community can respond to nuclear accidents remains essential.

Although Russia was responsible for the drone strike that damaged the structure, the EBRD does not expect Moscow to contribute to the repair bill. Renaud-Basso, however, did say future war reparations could attempt to claw back the cost of the damage to Chernobyl.

The EBRD estimates restoring the protective structure damaged during the Kremlin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, will cost around €500 million, although further technical assessments are still under way.

In October, G7 countries committed €260 million, representing more than half of the amount the bank believes is needed.

A conference in Paris on Nov. 9, co-chaired by France, Ukraine and the EBRD, is intended to build momentum for further pledges. But securing the remaining money will take time. 

“It's going to be a challenge,” Renaud-Basso acknowledged, adding that she hoped the conference would generate additional commitments, even if the full amount was unlikely to be secured immediately.

The bank wants to have the necessary funding in place to award contracts and begin the main restoration work in 2028, as it estimates that the work itself will take around two years.

Renaud-Basso singled out France for its role as the G7 president and showing “remarkable leadership in keeping this important issue high on the international agenda and mobilising support.”

The EBRD is now hoping to broaden the group of contributors. Renaud-Basso pointed to European countries that have supported previous Chernobyl projects and G7 members that have yet to make contributions, as well as countries in the Gulf and elsewhere.

During the previous international fundraising effort to build the New Safe Confinement, around 46 countries contributed, she said.

Renaud-Basso said the bank remained optimistic that the international community would eventually find the money, but stressed that the issue could not be left unresolved.

The challenge, she said, is to demonstrate once again that countries can work together to protect nuclear safety, just as they did in the aftermath of the 1986 disaster.

“The international community has been able to find solutions to address this challenge in the past. It's very important to show that we are able to address it now and to provide the safety that is needed,” she said.